Amazon Kindle Oasis ereader has grown only an inch, but it makes a difference when reading ebooks

2017-10-14

In the very early days of the Kindle ereaders, Amazon marketed a product with a tablet-size screen. It didn’t live for long, although second-hand units are still readily available. Then, Amazon simply decided that six inches is the only proper size for ereaders. Now, the company has changed its mind. The Kindle Oasis with its seven-inch E ink display enters Amazon into competition with ereaders that come with 7.8 and 8–inch screens. As we recently wrote, this screen size has quickly become a new attractive product category in ereaders.
In addition to the 7-inch display, other key features of the large-screen Kindle Oasis are:

– The unit is waterproof: read on a beach, in the bath, and it is also more durable for travel.
– Audible audiobooks are compatible with the device.
– VoiceView screen reader can read aloud text on the screen.
– Front light illuminates the screen for reading even in dark.
– Free cloud storage space for all content downloaded from Amazon.
– Wi-fi and/or mobile network connectivity depending on the model.

A couple of things to notice in the Kindle Oasis 7 are that there is no headphone jack, but you have to have Bluetooth headphones, the ereader still doesn’t open EPUB-formatted ebooks, and models with lowest price tags come with ads.

The prices start from 250 USD for the seven-inch Kindle Oasis. The cover must be purchased separately (if you need one). The kindle Oasis 7 base price point is at the same level as competitors’ 7.8 and 8-inch models.
Why 7.8 and 8-inch are becoming so popular that even Amazon decided to make a product that has display larger than six inches? Reading is more comfortable on a larger screen. This is, of course, very personal. For instance, I like to read from a 10-inch screen. More texts fits into a page, pictures look better, and if I enlarge the font, it can still display a fair amount of text. For a balanced view on the pros and cons on the different screen sizes (from 6 to 13 inches) of ereaders, read this article.

Hands-on video of the 7-inch Kindle Oasis by Cnet shows how significant the size difference is to the 6-inch model.

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